Spider Stomper
Posts: 201
Joined: Thursday, 16th July 2015, 21:47
Kronepihali, tormentor of souls
Besides, I'm thinking of some atmospherics here.
Kronepihali is a fearsome god of the lower planes, charged with tormenting the souls of the dying until they find some refuge in faith or are entirely obliterated. He recruits the wicked to reveal his glory within the world of the living; those that please him go on to serve in special demonic cadre in the afterlife. He is pleased by the use of weapons and spells that inflict pain and torment, and the deaths of living and holy beings.
As the embodiments of a powerful evil force, followers of Kronepihali are immune to haloes and extinguish holy fire as they come into contact with it.
Those favored by Kronepihali receive the ability to Embalm Corpse, which protects the body of a slain creature from decay for a small cost in piety. The bodies remain unchanged in all other regards, and may be used in the same way as fresh corpses.
Well-favored initiates are able to view the terrain and creatures in a one square radius surrounding each of their undead thralls. As the skeletons they control wear down to a trembling pile of agonized rubble, followers remain able to view the creatures and effects at the square of the creatures' final uneasy rest.
At a moderate cost in piety, followers may Distill Soul from a corpse, consuming its spiritual essence to receive the benefit of a potion of magic.
At a high cost in piety, particularly avid followers may Extract Soul from a living opponent with less than 25% of its original hit points, killing it in the process and gaining an opportunity to learn any spell it can cast. The spell becomes memorized with a probability equal to its success rate in casting. Failure to memorize the spell causes side effects in proportion to the danger rating of the spell, and include a temporary drain of intelligence or skills, rotting, slow, confusion, or paralyze effects.
Worshippers are forbidden the use of holy weapons and scrolls of holy word.
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The last power is by far the most versatile - it is meant to replace bookspam gifts and give followers of this one god a chance to get at the ever-growing list of NPC-only spells. Honestly, I don't know why the game *has* NPC-only spells - a lot of them don't really seem that powerful - but the point of these gods is to make gameplay more varied and interesting, so I say go for it. Distill Soul is a (rather poor) competitor for Sif Muna's a-a mainstay; if you wanted to turn it up you could say it makes an actual potion of magic to store for later, but I think that is too much. The skeleton effect is perhaps more amusing than useful, but in theory you could have spy eyes all over the level that way. I don't know if it can be implemented sanely, though. Ideally, the prohibition on holy weapons/holy word scrolls should not be a *rule* - they should simply cease to exist if your character touches them. (If you're looking for a replacement boon after you shoot down one of the others, making holy weapons disappear when they *hit* your character would be an idea)
Mod edit: moved to advice since the rest of the thread is primarily discussing the effectiveness of necromancy in general.